The invention relates generally to image capture, and more particularly, to capturing a sequence of images and selecting therefrom based on detected intactness information of an interested target.
Nowadays many kinds of electronic devices are equipped with the ability to capture images. Examples of these electronic devices include digital cameras, mobile phones, media players, media recorders, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet personal computers (tablet PCs), laptop computers, etc. For the sake of simplicity, these kinds of electronic devices will be collectively referred to as image capturing devices in the subsequent disclosure.
A user can use an image capturing device to capture images that encompass a target of interest to the user. The interested target can be a living object, such as a person or a pet, or a natural or artificial object, such as a tree or a building. The interested target can also be a combination of several objects, or constitute only a part of one or several objects. For example, the interested target can be a couple of lovers standing together, a cluster of flowers, a recognized human face, or a part of any object(s) encompassed in a region focused by the image capturing device.
Inevitably, there is always a time lag between the moment when the user wants the image capturing device to capture an image and the moment when the image capturing device actually captures an image. The speed limitations of both the user's nervous system and the image capturing device are the main causes of the time lag. During the time lag, things such as the interested target, anything else that is in front of the image capturing device, and the image capturing device itself, may move. The movements may affect the desirability of the actually captured image.
For example, some movements may cause an interrupting object to lie directly between the interested target and the image capturing device at the moment when the image is captured. As a result, a part of the view of the image capturing device that should have been occupied by a part of the interested target is instead occupied by the interrupting object. As appeared in the captured image, a part of the interested target will be covered by the interrupting object. If this happens, it will make the captured image less desirable or completely useless to the user. In response, the user frequently will spend additional time waiting and taking another photograph as a replacement.
To deal with the aforementioned situation, a user may want to capture several candidate photographs for the interested target within the same scene, retain all the captured images in a non-volatile storage, and delete the undesirable ones from the stored images later when the user has time. These undesired images will occupy at least a part of the non-volatile storage's limited space for some period of time. As a result, the user won't be able to use the non-volatile storage efficiently to store only those desirable images.